A routine question posed by practitioners is whether contracting authorities (CAs) can put in place framework agreements using only quality criteria, or if it is mandatory to include price or other commercial qualitative factors as an award criterion?
This is an interesting question, but one shrouded in a lot of grey matter as there are conflicting expert views in the absence of clear provisions in the Public Contract Regulations 2015 ('PCR 2015') or guidance from Europe, CCS or the courts.